


Matching

by mimsvj



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Powerful Harry, Smart Harry, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28297329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mimsvj/pseuds/mimsvj
Summary: In a world of soul animals, two young orphans struggle through the trials of having an uncommon animal. However, when they do find each other will it all be worth it?
Relationships: Peter Parker/Harry Potter
Comments: 11
Kudos: 181





	1. Discovering

It was a well-known fact that everyone had a soul animal, these animals were a part of you sent to the another that was most compatible and most in need of it. The most common soul animals were birds. Slowly, other animals began to disappear particularly magical animals. It was rare to see them before but now it was practically legend. While those in Wizarding Culture knew it to be true those in the Muggle world believe it to be merely a fairytale. Hurting a soul animal was punishable by death in both worlds. They were sacred. It was completely taboo to ask about another animal, even worse to touch another animal. Animals rarely let anyone touch them other than their soul pair, even their other half was included.

As the light began to rise to power it became somewhat shunned to have an animal that wasn’t a bird. Although it was still not unusual for Hufflepuffs to have small woodland animals, Ravenclaws to have meadow animals, Slytherins to have desert animals, and Gryffindors to have grassland animals. It was believed that this only happened when there was a powerful wizard. The most powerful ones had magical creatures. The last to have a magical creature was believe to be Merlin who had a great dragon as his animal.

This animal would age and grow with the person, often features of their other half could be seen in the animal's colours. When a person found their match their animal's eyes would glow and turn gold. Before this, the animal eyes were the same shade as their other half. It was thought that the individual who was your soul pair was meant to be the most important person in your life. This why soulmates could be platonic, romantic just truly anything that would be important to you. There were even famous rivals that were soulmates, they were key for pushing one another forward in life. Although this was a less common kind of soulmates. The key feature that everyone knew and dreamed of was a communication bond. In close soulmates their animals could actually communicate with their human. Only a few people across the world ever had this kind of bond and all of them did great things.

An animal would come to a child on their 5th birthday. This is why just before midnight on a little boy in Surrey was hoping that his relatives were wrong and that he would finally have a friend.. a soul animal.

———

‘Just a little bit longer’ Freak thought, ‘no wait.. Harry, that’s what my teacher said’. He has only just discovered his name from his school teacher Mr. Poppy that year. He was told off in class for not replying to his name and that’s when he found out it was Harry. Aunty and Uncle still called him Freak or Boy though. Only at school was he Harry, that’s where he found out about soul animals too. Harry was very smart, his teacher told him so and tried to get him moved to a different more advanced class but after the talk with his Aunty and Uncle Harry had been told off for showing up Dudley, so he knew that he was turning 5 tomorrow and it was nearly here. He thought this would be the best present he had ever got, even if he had never had a present before. Dudley had got a red-billed quelea, a common, ordinary bird that his parents were very proud of. Uncle had a little egret, Harry thought that the long neck represented his aunt well. Aunty had a killdeer bird, a short stout bird that constantly warbled around flying into things that Harry was blamed for. Harry hoped for a bird, everyone at school had a bird and when some people had moved in down the street one of them had a tabby cat as a soul animal. They moved 3 months later after being isolated and shunned by the neighbourhood. Harry remembered hearing his aunt gossip with her book club about it.

Harry heard the clock in the living room make a rattling noise that is usually made just before chiming on a new hour. It was time. Closing his eyes, “Happy Birthday Harry,” he counted to 10 then opened his eyes. There was nothing there just him… maybe Dudley was right and he had no soulmate. He really was a freak. Harry started sniffling, tears rolling down his cheeks as he lay under the stairs on his too small mattress. Then he heard a whimper and something wet brushing against his face.

Opening his eyes Harry saw a wet snout in his direct eye line, brown eyes were staring at him curious, intelligent and sad at the state of him. “Are you really here?” Harry couldn’t help but ask. Harry got a bark in return which he quickly shushed so as not to wake anyone. After he was sure that no one had been woken up he released a breath and sat up. The dog was definitely a puppy with no fur, a dark chocolate coat and matching black snout, short ears and a long, thin tail that was wagging happily. Harry remembered this dog, it was a Xoloitzcuintle, he had read about them in a book in the library on dog breeds. Harry spent most of his time in the library reading everything he could. They were extremely loyal, intelligent and loving, everything Harry could ever want in a soulmate. Harry remembered what all the books said about soul animals not really liking to be touched so he stopped his hand before he could pat the animal. However, much to his surprise the animal practically leaped into his arms and licked him all over the face. Squealing in delight Harry patted the animal all over and hugged him close to his chest. “Now we just need to find a name for you..” He pondered looking down into the dog’s intelligent, playful eyes.

“Buddy?”

“Rex?”

“Oscar?”

“Titus?”

“Roxy?”

“Jasper?”

“I am not very good at this am I…” Harry stated as every single time he gave a name the dog growled at it unhappily. He needed a more unique name, not one that every person named their dog. After all, this was his soul animal, his best friend and the best thing that had ever happened to him since.. well since he could remember. That made Harry feel even more pressure though to get everything right for this perfect dog infant of him.

“How about Filos, it means friend?” Which got a happy tail wag and a lick in return. Giggling Harry happily petted his new friend and chatted with him.

This was the most exciting birthday of Harry’s life so he stayed up for hours that night telling Filos all his secrets, his hopes and his dreams. This would be a routine that would continue every night for many years to come where Harry would find solace in Filos curled up together on that mattress.

———

Over in New York a freshly orphaned boy sat crying silent tears it was his first birthday without his parents tomorrow. They had died 2 months ago and even though his Uncle Ben and Aunt May took care of him a lot beforehand he went home to his parents at the end of the day. He had completely forgotten about his 5th birthday and from the scrambled for decorations and the cake he saw in Aunt May put in the fridge yesterday he thought that they had too. See Peter was smart, he was up a grade in school and the only reason he hadn’t gone further was because of his best friend Ned. Ned had gotten a soul animal 6 months ago that was a red-tailed hawk. Aunt May had a short-eared owl complimenting Uncle Ben’s barn owl. Peter was hoping for a cool bird of prey like his friend but he knew it was likely that he would get a kind of owl like his Aunt, Uncle and parents.

He glanced at the electric clock on the side of his bed. Just 1 more minute. He hoped that whoever was his soulmate is better than Flash who boasted of having a frog as his soul animal. The only one in the school that didn’t have a bird. He hopes they like him, he knows that some people don’t like how smart he is so he hopes that doesn’t happen.

While he was thinking about all his hopes and dreams Peter had missed the clock turning midnight. He startled at suddenly feeling a weight against his right side. He hadn’t even noticed. The first thing he saw was dark black with a hint of red wings. “Looks like I am having a bird just like we predicted,” Peter thought. Although he had never seen a bird with this kind of wings before.

The animal moved from its position allowing Peter to finally see it fully. It was… it was… Peter was gaping and not quite able to comprehend what was before him. It was a snake with.. wings? It had the most captivating emerald eyes that seemed to glow in the dark room reassuring him that everything was alright.

Peter sat up close and fully expected the animal to move further away as he looked towards his bookshelf to try and discover what it could be. Instead, it shrunk in size and proceeded to wrap itself around Peter’s shoulders. Gently, not wanting the animal to leave, Peter got out of bed and looked through his shelves. Next to the book on soulmates was one on animals and next to that were fantasy books. Opening up one of the fantasy books as his brain worked into overdrive Peter flicked through the pages. He only owned 4 non-science based books so he might have to beg Aunt May to let him go to the library otherwise. After several minutes he found a page. The drawing looked similar to his soul animal but black and blue.

Reading aloud “Occamy. This is a found in mythology believed to have originated in India, they are aggressive when approached by those unknown, wary of others leading to them being isolated. They were an outcast amongst mythological creatures and mundane ones. Although it has been said that once their loyalty is earned they are the fiercest protector and would fight to the death. They are family orientated due to the dwindling numbers in the population the stories often show them to be protective and secretive surrounding their young. Occamy although often produce many young, like Werewolves, they will accept the young of others as their own.”

There wasn’t much more in the book as it went on to Dragon’s next. Peter was shocked. He had never heard of someone having a mythical animal as their soul animal. He didn’t know what to do.

Just then the door was swung open and in the door frame stood his Uncle.

“Pete what are you doing… what’s that around your neck, Pete? Did they come? May Peter’s animal came!” While sleepy his uncle shouted to May. Peter heard a thump then the sound of feet racing across the floor and two familiar birds came into view alongside his aunt.

Peter was panicking, he didn’t know what his aunt and uncle would say. “Well.. uh, yes, um..”

“Let's see then Peter!” Aunt May squealed. She then rushed forward into the room dragging his uncle. Once she got close however the occamy around Peter’s neck grew in size, curling on top of his head it spread its wings wide and hissed in warning. Yelping Uncle Ben drew Aunt May behind him.

“What the Hell!” He shouted.

“Stop it, you’re scaring him,” Peter shouted back. He reached up and pet the occamy, pulling it down into his lap and whispering to him while hugging him seemed to calm him but he was still suspiciously eyeing the new people in the room.

“Peter… I’ve never seen that animal before..” Aunt May said hesitatingly.

“He’s an occamy, I looked it up,” taking a fortifying breath, “you aren’t going to get rid of me are you?”

“Of course not!” His Aunt and Uncle reassured him. “We just want you to be protected Pete, you know how people can sometimes be about certain animals and people aren’t fond of snakes.. imagine how they will be with this,” his uncle said.

Aunt May was quick to add while elbowing his uncle hard, “That doesn’t matter one bit to us though.” After a pointed look, she further added “he seems protective of you sweetie, what’s his name?”

Peter looked up from where he had been engaged with emerald eyes, “I haven’t decided yet.. but.. how about… Antinous?”

He got a soft purr and a lick to the chin with a forked tongue.

“I think he likes it!” Peter exclaimed through fits of giggles at the tickling tongue.

“It’s great Pete, how did you come up with it?” His Uncle Ben asked.

“It just felt right,”


	2. Bond Surprises

Harry was tired, last night he didn’t receive any food and this morning all he managed to sneak were the crusts of toasts. He had to rush to tidy up so that his Aunt and Cousin wouldn’t leave for school without him. He had just started year 1 one month ago and he loved it. Harry had to watch his marks weren’t too far above his cousin’s though since the first time he had received marks with 100% while Dudley scrapped by his aunt had told him off for cheating and making her Duddikins look bad. Since then Harry had made sure to get 40% of the work wrong every time they worked in their workbooks. Harry still continued reading and learning in his own time though, he knew that he wouldn’t live with the Dursleys forever and he wanted to be prepared for when he left.

“Mr. Potter,” broke through his daydreaming. He blinked up at the teacher. “The answer, Mr. Potter?” She asked impatiently. Harry didn’t like Miss Hughes very much, she would always sneer down at him, whenever she had to touch him she promptly let go and wiped her hands as if he was diseased and worst of all she seemed to love Dudley, she always believed him. “Well, boy, this is the last time I’ll ask before I will have to move you to the corner desk!” She exclaimed. 16.. that was the answer... Harry had calculated it within a second of looking at it. Honestly, addition was something he had read about in the library at lunchtime weeks ago but he couldn’t let her know that.

“Is it 12 Miss Hughes?” Harry polite, albeit quietly, replied.

“For goodness sake boy, this is why you need to pay attention! Honestly, I don’t even know how you managed to move up. Probably through pity, didn’t want to separate you from your cousin,” she initially shouted at Harry but said the last part under her breath as she turned to another in the class to ask the same question but receive the right answer this time.

Underneath Harry’s desk Filos was nudging his hands, head in his lap, asking for pets while whimpering in sympathy. Unfortunately, he could only discretely pet Filos as he didn’t want to be in trouble for being freaky and having physical contact with his soul animal. Originally at the start of the year Filo would growl and stand up making himself as big as possible whenever Miss Hughes was mean to Harry but after she started separated them as punishment it never happened again. Harry knew that she wasn’t allowed to do that, that you weren’t allowed to harm a soul animal and that would happen if they were separated too long, but no one seemed to care. 

Harry zoned back when the bell rang signaling it was afternoon break time. Before Dudley and his gang could hunt Harry down to play some kind of game he bolted out, with Filos easily keeping pace, taking a long root to the library. Once he got there he was kindly greeted by Miss Dines with a “Good Afternoon” which he happily replied. Ever since he started coming and talking to the librarian she started protecting him in here from Dudley, he had tried to come in once and when he went to get Harry into trouble with Miss Dines she was having none of it. She complained about his behaviour and since Dudley got in trouble he hasn’t returned to the library. She didn’t have much power outside of the library though.

Harry found his favour nook right at the back of the library cramped behind a row of books making it impossible to tell was there unless you had discovered it yourself. Harry had a stack of books waiting for him in the nook where he got comfy on the beanbag with Filos curling up in a beanbag of his own. Time to immerse himself in the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes before he had to return for his last lesson.

————

Harry watched in slow motion as the plate fell from the counter… just before it hit the ground though something worse happened. It hovered in the air for a second but it was enough for his Uncle’s face to turn purple and him to shout “Freak!”. Harry tried to make himself small but he knew it was no use. Just as Vernon was advancing though Dudley spoke up with vindictive glee in his eyes “Daddy, maybe you should separate the Freak and his mutt. That’s what Miss Hughes does and he always stops being freaky after.” This stop Vernon short before he too got the same glee as Dudley. Harry briefly noticed that his Aunt looked unsure about this but still remained silent. Vernon’s hand grabbed Harry’s arm in a tight grip that would surely leave bruises. Then he flung Harry into the cupboard and slammed the door shut before Filos could jump in after him. Harry was panicking now, he could hear Filos whining and scratching at the door trying desperately to get in. “There will be no freakishness in my house Boy! You’ll stay there until you learn!” Vernon shouted through the door with Dudley laughing in the background.

A few hours later the Dursleys had all gone to bed and Harry was lying on the floor his face pressed close to the door trying to wedge his fingers under it. He could feel Filos’ hot breath on his fingers. Harry was whispering comforting platitudes to Filos to try and calm them both. Harry felt desperate as Filos was still whimpering and whining. 

“Come on Fi, it will only be a while! We will together again before you know it.” Harry tried one last time. Finally, he just gave up, what was the use, he burst into tears with sobs violently shaking his whole body. ‘This is useless’ Harry thought.

‘Don’t give up’ Harry suddenly heard an echo through his mind. Jolting up Harry nearly banged his head on the cupboard ceiling. 

“Who's there!” Harry said out loud rather frightened by the voice and wondering if he had made it up.

‘For someone so smart you are being rather stupid, my friend’ The voice replied amused. At the same time, Harry heard a thump. That’s when he realises…

“Filos?”

‘Who else!” Filos was amused making his tail wag again. ‘You don’t have to say everything out loud silly human. Just think it and direct it to me’

Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on trying to direct his thoughts, visualising them going directly to Filos.

‘..Did.. it work…?’ Harry hesitantly thought like he couldn’t quite believe it was real. He heard the huff that Filos gave out at that and giggled quietly at his friend’s frustration at the “silly human” as he put it.

‘You’ll need some practice but yes. With time we will be able to communicate freely without you having to concentrate. This can sometimes develop to you being able to communicate with my other soul half too if the bond you share continues to grow and become strong enough. With practice I will be able to send you images too, they are similar to sending thoughts but more difficult so few humans master this. After this development though I believe we will end up sharing an emotional bond too.’ Filos imparted his knowledge to Harrison. As a soul animal he was instantly born knowing this, it was unknown by most of the population simply because those who could communicate with their animals were so rare. In fact Harry didn’t know of a person alive right now that could communicate with their animal. 

‘Can we … start practicing.. now?’

‘Sure!’ Filos excitedly replied back bouncing on the floor a bit like the puppy he was losing the seriousness he had shown when explaining.

————

Meanwhile in Queen’s, Peter was sitting in the dark with a flashlight strapped to his head trying to get the circuit to work. He had rescued the parts for it out of some trash being thrown away I the robotics lab in his school. That was one thing Peter didn’t mind about moving up to second grade was that he now could use the equipment that only the older children got to use before. It did mean that he was now in Flash’s class though. Before he had only taken his science class with the older children so he only saw Flash sometimes, now though he was with him all the time. He was also with Ned too so he just stayed close to the other boy as much as possible.

Antinous was curled up in Peter’s hair sleeping. It seemed to be his favourite place to be because other than at school that is where he would be found most of the time. Once his soul animal had first arrived Peter and his guardians had had a discussion, they all agreed it was best that no one knew about what animal Antinous really was. People would either freak out and want to test Peter or he would end up being famous and never be able to be away from a camera. This meant that they needed to discuss how to disguise him, they had been fretting about it for days. Peter’s birthday was in August so he didn’t have school right now. In the end it had actually been Antinous to come up with the solution. He had shrunk down and more importantly further shrunk down his wings so that they appeared like nubs on his back if he didn’t use them. This made him appear as a snake, which while not the most favourable of soul animals was miles better than a mythical one. As small as this he was curled around Peter’s wrist at school so as not to be trampled on. This did make Peter stand out since no one else's soul animals would touch them, the closest they got was always on clothing, not bare skin. Sometimes Peter convinced Antinous to go into his pocket instead when he wanted a break from all the staring but he knew that Antinuous wasn’t a bit fan of that, he could tell by the way he always tried to not go in and moved slowly.

While he had been thinking his brain and hands had been working on auto-pilot to complete his project. Then a spark occurred and he pulled his right index finger away from the circuit hissing at the sting of the burn. He was momentarily distracted by the project working… he had done it. Peter just needed to rebuild the shell of the laptop then it would, he had already fixed the charging issue but now he had a laptop and it wouldn’t cost his Uncle or Aunt an arm to get him one.

Antinous flew from his head hovering in the air by his hand that he hurt.

“Look I did it!” He squealed to Antinous but he wasn’t paying attention at all. He was just focusing on his burnt finger, staring at it. “I’m fine, it really isn’t bad and will heal in no time” Peter reassured Anitnous moving his hand to pet him when Antinous grew suddenly to 1 meter long and 50 centimetres thick from his 20 centimetres long and 3 centimetres thick. He wrapped himself around Peter then touched his cool, scaled head against the burn breathing in and out. Suddenly Antinous’ reddish underwings and the red line of scales on his underbelly that had developed as of late glowed in the dark room. Peter gasped as he could feel the pain from his finger leaving him.

“What.. what..wait, was that you?” Peter questioned Antinous who had now stopped glowing. Then glowed again and Peter felt something flow in his mind, it was an area and link that Peter had never noticed before but felt that had always been there for some reason. He was filled with love, comfort and protectiveness. Antinous purred bumping his head into Peter’s cheek then looked him directly in the eye.

“Wow!” Peter beamed. Amusement travelled down the bond making Peter giggle too. “Thank you for taking the pain” he only received the love in return again.

“How come you can only do this when you glow? Is this something that all occamy can do? Is this a soul bond thing? How common it is? I have never heard Ned tell me about this... I wonder if he knows? We are going to have to work on it though if you glow ever time, no one knows about you being an occamy and we can’t have them finding out as they just wouldn’t understand so we are going to have to practice of you are going to have to promise not to do that in public and around where anyone can see. Oh my, what are Aunt May and Uncle Ben going to think? I know they have been understanding so far but what is this is it? What if they leave me and-“ Peter’s once exciting rambling turned into worried rambling until he was cut off by a tail poking his cheek, a squeeze around his middle and reassuring sent down the bond. Antinous unwrapped himself once Peter was calm again then shrank down to his mini day to day size. Then with a burst of mischievousness down to bond, he glowed even brighter just once to making Peter panic and yelp before he stopped glowing all together. This made Peter gape at him as he could still feel Antinous’ amusement down the bond.

“You did that on purpose!” Peter growled tackling Antinous who discretely steered Peter out of the way of the circuit on the floor.

“Peter Parker you better be asleep young man!” Aunt May’s voice came from down the corridor. Yelping Peter turned off his flashlight threw it into a box and climbed onto his bed. He would investigate this bond more tomorrow. For now, Peter had adventures to go on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think? I think I am going to do another time skip and maybe just maybe something will happen next chapter...

**Author's Note:**

> Antinous is the original constellation to hold the star Hadrian and was Hadrian's lover so I thought it would be a nice little link to Harry and to his heritage. I am not too sure yet when I want these two to meet.. do we want it earlier on and they grow together, around hogwarts time, during hogwarts or after?


End file.
